This application claims the benefit of the Korean Application No. P2002-7126 filed on Feb. 7, 2002, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner, and more particularly, to an air conditioner having a thermoelectric module.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, an air conditioner is an appliance installed in a room of a store, office, home, and the like so as to cool or heat a room air.
FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a general air conditioner.
Referring to FIG. 1, an air conditioner includes a compressor 1 compressing a refrigerant, a condenser 2 condensing the compressed refrigerant, an expansion valve 3 expanding the condensed refrigerant adiabatically, and an evaporator 4 evaporating the adiabatically expanded refrigerant at an isobaric state.
Operation of the above-constructed air conditioner is schematically explained as follows.
First, a refrigerant gas compressed at high temperature and pressure in the compressor 1 is sent to the condenser 2, and then exchanges heat with an external air circulated by a blow fan 2a so as to be liquefied. In this case, the heat-exchanged air through the condenser 2 is discharged outside a room.
Subsequently, the refrigerant liquid having passed the condenser 2 is decompressed through the expansion valve 3 to a pressure for easy evaporation so as to be sent to the evaporator 4. The refrigerant liquid then exchanges heat with an external air circulated by the blow fan 4a in the evaporator 4 so as to absorb external heat.
The heat-exchanged air through the evaporator 4 is blown into a room so as to cool the room. And, the refrigerant gas having passed the evaporator 4 is sent to the compressor 1 so as to be compressed again.
Unfortunately, the general air conditioner has the following disadvantages or problems sue to its structural characteristics.
First, the air conditioner according to the related art is designed to cool an entire room space, thereby failing to satisfy all the tastes of persons in the room individually as well as efficient in an air-conditioned capacity required for cooling.
Namely, a capacity suitable for a standard quantity of human respiration is 0.1xcx9c0.15 l/s per person. A general air conditioner supplies a standard quantity of human respiration of 10 l/s per person. Thus, it is known that the quantity required for human substantially is about 1% of the entire air-conditioned quantity.
Second, the air conditioner according to the related art is a fixed type and increases in volume, whereby a cooling/heating effect is reduced in an area far from the air conditioner. Furthermore, there is no effect at all outside the room having the air conditioner inside.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to an air conditioner using a thermoelectric module that substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioner using a thermoelectric module enabling to supply users individually with fresh and pleasant air for cooling/heating.
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, an air conditioner according to the present invention includes a thermoelectric module having high and low temperature parts discharging and absorbing heat by an electric power, a heat-absorption accelerating means connected thermally to the low temperature part of the thermoelectric module so as to accelerate heat exchange between the low temperature part and an air, and a heat-dissipation accelerating means connected to the high temperature part of the thermoelectric module to accelerate heat exchange between the high temperature part and air so as to cool the high temperature part.
Accordingly, the present invention enables to supply users individually with fresh and pleasant air for cooling/heating as the air conditioner decreases in volume using the thermoelectric module.
In this case, the present invention proposes the heat-dissipation accelerating means using both air-cooling and water-cooling systems properly. Therefore, the air conditioner according to the present invention enables to cool the high temperature part more efficiently, thereby increasing a heat-exchange efficiency.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.